CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced the launch of its Agriculture Index, a broad-based price benchmark designed to track the aggregate performance of five sectors fundamental to the global farm economy.
The index, which will be updated monthly, integrates futures prices from Grains, Oilseeds, Livestock, Dairy and Lumber. These components allow the benchmark to comprehensively track structural changes in supply chains, shifting industrial demand and changing consumer habits impacting the cost of farm goods around the world.
"Agriculture doesn't move one commodity at a time–and neither should the benchmarks that track it," said John Ricci, Managing Director and Global Head of Agricultural Products at CME Group. "By aggregating futures prices across five sectors on a single platform, the CME Group Agriculture Index gives producers, traders and analysts a more complete read on the farm economy and where it's headed."
The index methodology is designed to provide a fair representation of commodity costs, neutralizing price differences between delivery months for futures contracts and applying appropriate weightings across different markets.
The Agriculture Index complements the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, a nationwide, monthly measure of 400 producers' sentiment and outlook on the agricultural economy.
For more information on the CME Group Agriculture Index, please visit https://www.cmegroup.com/drafts/markets/agriculture-index.
